ETA: I didn't know all of this below... I've been on a LONG conference call and did a little research...
At temperatures of 104°F / 40°C and 122°F / 50°C: Proteins in Fish and Meat Begin to Denature (break down into liquid forms that can then seep and migrate out of the meat structure itself.)
A perfect example of this is the albumin that you are seeing on the surface of your salmon.
Some studies have been done that show that the alteration of the pH of the flesh, or soaking the flesh in a 5-10% brine solution can assist in avoiding the denaturing of the protiens.
You said that you brined the filets in a mixture of water, kosher salt, brown sugar, and maple syrup. This mixture should have a pH of ~6-7.5 depending upon your location and it's water quality. The pH adjustment was shown to have been best in the >8 range, but at that point, the caustic nature of the liquid would begin to structurally change your fish (slightly, but it will change over time).
So, the key would be to keep the IT of the fish at <104° f, or to use a brine solution that is >/= 5%. Using the chart below, what was your approximate solution?
To create 8-cups of brine at 2% salinity, use 38 grams of salt. To create 3-cups of brine at a 2% salinity, add the amount of salt called for in the columns under 1-cup (5 grams) and 2-cups (10 grams) which equals 15-grams of salt. If creating a 1% brine, simply divide the 2% salt grams by 50%. To make a 1% brine for 2-cups of water, use half of the 5-grams, ROUND DOWN to 2 grams.
For the brine that a lot of us use, Pop's, the brine solution would be in the range of ~7% (1-Tbs kosher salt = 16.2 grams with 16 tablespoons in a cup, = 259.2 grams of salt in a gallon of water)
Good stuff! One quart of water and 1/3 cup of Morton's kosher salt when converted to grams gives me a brine right around 9%. The water here is very alkaline.
ETA: I didn't know all of this below... I've been on a LONG conference call and did a little research...
At temperatures of 104°F / 40°C and 122°F / 50°C: Proteins in Fish and Meat Begin to Denature (break down into liquid forms that can then seep and migrate out of the meat structure itself.)
A perfect example of this is the albumin that you are seeing on the surface of your salmon.
Some studies have been done that show that the alteration of the pH of the flesh, or soaking the flesh in a 5-10% brine solution can assist in avoiding the denaturing of the protiens.
You said that you brined the filets in a mixture of water, kosher salt, brown sugar, and maple syrup. This mixture should have a pH of ~6-7.5 depending upon your location and it's water quality. The pH adjustment was shown to have been best in the >8 range, but at that point, the caustic nature of the liquid would begin to structurally change your fish (slightly, but it will change over time).
So, the key would be to keep the IT of the fish at <104° f, or to use a brine solution that is >/= 5%. Using the chart below, what was your approximate solution?
To create 8-cups of brine at 2% salinity, use 38 grams of salt. To create 3-cups of brine at a 2% salinity, add the amount of salt called for in the columns under 1-cup (5 grams) and 2-cups (10 grams) which equals 15-grams of salt. If creating a 1% brine, simply divide the 2% salt grams by 50%. To make a 1% brine for 2-cups of water, use half of the 5-grams, ROUND DOWN to 2 grams.
For the brine that a lot of us use, Pop's, the brine solution would be in the range of ~7% (1-Tbs kosher salt = 16.2 grams with 16 tablespoons in a cup, = 259.2 grams of salt in a gallon of water)
Were you targeting a specific internal temperature or were you going off of how the fish felt/flaked?
I'm going for appearance and feel rather than temperature. To follow the recipe I've been using requires two hours at 100, two at 120 and finishing with two hours at 140. The final product has always been exactly what I was shooting for, I just can't beat the albumin issue.
You have a paradox here. If the final product is exactly what you want, using the process that you do to achieve that result will always produce albumin. It's the high heat factor involved.
I've always had trouble with sockeye. I think it's a lot fattier than other salmons. I ramp the temp like you and have tried many temp variances with good and not so good pellicles and it always had boogers. So I stopped trying. I am now getting pretty good results with farmed atlantic so I've been sticking with that. Can't keep up with my wife's consumption. Did 4 pounds the other day -Okay, the taste is great but once again, I'm disappointed with the appearance. I put a lot of effort into controllling the temperature but I still had significant albumin leakage. I'm wondering if it's a sockeye thing. This is the best looking rack.
It may also be time to use this smoker for target practice and upgrade.
Great looking salmon! Sockeye is actually very lean compared to Atlantic and King Salmon. I think the higher protein to fat ratio may be part of the problem. More fat means a slower rise in temperature, which means the fibers will take longer to contract and exude albumin. The frustrating part is this is what I'm shooting for and it was actually smoked at a higher temperature in a Bradley Digital:
I've always had trouble with sockeye. I think it's a lot fattier than other salmons. I ramp the temp like you and have tried many temp variances with good and not so good pellicles and it always had boogers. So I stopped trying. I am now getting pretty good results with farmed atlantic so I've been sticking with that. Can't keep up with my wife's consumption. Did 4 pounds the other day -
Can't tell you anything other than my results. Sockeye salmon, no matter what I did, fatted out. My current efforts with atlantic salmon does not end in the same results. A google search shows the atlantic with higher fat content than sockeye so it's a conundrum to me.
Great looking salmon! Sockeye is actually very lean compared to Atlantic and King Salmon. I think the higher protein to fat ratio may be part of the problem. More fat means a slower rise in temperature, which means the fibers will take longer to contract and exude albumin. The frustrating part is this is what I'm shooting for and it was actually smoked at a higher temperature in a Bradley Digital:
The difference is the above salmon was brushed with syrup every hour. That's a little too sweet for me but could also mean the difference between "clean" and "snotty" salmon.
You have just added to my experimentation. Need to try some dry brined and wet brined head to head. Also need to try the 10 minute and 8 hr wet brine head to head. I'm seeing lots of sockeye in my future but there are worse things to experiment on. However, I have never had sockeye come out looking anyway near as nice as that.
If we are looking at the same picture, that is the membrane from the belly cavity showing up white....
